


Platinum

by Ceres_Libera



Series: Switch [5]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Anniversary Challenge, Community: Jim and Bones, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-28
Updated: 2014-07-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:38:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2034024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceres_Libera/pseuds/Ceres_Libera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo and Jim celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary. A very, very, very belated <i>Switch</i>verse fill of a prompt from Abigail89 for Jim and Bones' Anniversary Challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Platinum

“Bones?” 

Jim’s query carried in the quiet morning air, but was only just loud enough to be heard over the racket the birds were making in the garden surrounding the porch where Leo sat. He hoped the creak of the old rocking chair against the floorboards laid by his great-grandfather would carry his location back to his husband, as he dared not so much as breathe more loudly. He did, however, think really hard, hoping whatever meagre psi gifts he had did not fail him now. All of those years of serving with Spock should have taught him _something_ about telepathy, after all, not to mention his experiences with their eldest.

Jim appeared shortly thereafter, quietly propping the screen door open on his hip while he balanced a tray. Leo smiled widely at the sight, not sure if he was more happy to see his beloved, or what he carried. 

Jim’s brow unfurled from its worried expression when he caught sight of Leo’s face, and he smiled. 

Leo pointed a long finger at the tray Jim was putting down on Gram’s tastefully matched wicker side table. “Bless you,” Leo mouthed fervently, and Jim’s eyes crinkled even more deeply before he bent forward to press a lingering kiss to Leo’s mouth, and the barest whisper of one to the brow of their sleeping toddler. 

Jim waited patiently while Leo shifted forward, ever so slowly, and then swapped the hot, drool-covered cloth on his chest for a blessedly cool, dry one, draping it over Leo’s shoulder and down over his breastbone. 

Petey gave a cry and shifted uncomfortably, hands moving, and Jim teased the end of a new frozen ring against his fluttering fingers. Peter grasped it and sighed, turning his head to drop the now-warm one from his mouth -- which Jim deftly caught in the old cloth -- before he jammed in the new cold ring without waking himself. 

Leo settled the toddler back over his heart very carefully before he gave a thumbs-up to his husband’s dexterity. 

“Go Team!’ Jim said very quietly. 

Petey murmured loudly, and they both froze as he whined and wriggled. He tossed his head, before settling with a pained sigh. 

Jim waited a solid two minutes before moving again. It had been a rough couple of nights for their redheaded boy. 

Leo gently lifted the wet curls from the back of Peter’s neck and Jim wiped it down with the old cloth. He poured a glass of iced tea and handed it to Leo, miming to let him know that he’d dosed Petey’s new ring with the anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving agent that Leo had set out on the counter. He turned and went into the house to get the cloth and the binky back into rotation, and Leo rocked and drank his tea gratefully, feeling Peter’s weight sinking into him as the boy settled into a more solid sleep. 

Jim came back out onto the porch, walking silently on bare feet, and Leo took the moment to admire his husband, still trim after more than a decade out of shipboard duty in Starfleet. He had grey in his sideburns, and more and more white hair appeared each time he grew the beard he adopted when it was cold, or he wasn’t teaching, or he felt like tweaking the Admiralty’s nose. More laugh lines graced his expressive eyes than ever before, and he was _still_ the handsomest man that Leo’d ever seen. 

Jim stretched up and out before swinging himself down into the seat next to Leo’s, still wearing his rumpled sleep shorts and t-shirt, as Leo and Petey were. “I hate these fucking molars, Bones,” Jim murmured, filling his own glass. “None of the other kids had it so bad.” 

“Thank God,” Leo replied, draining his own glass, and holding it out for Jim to refill. It was a bright Georgia Spring morning, and still a bit cool, but Petey was running a temperature, so his old Daddy was sweating. 

“Jojo had those night terrors, though,” Jim said thoughtfully. “They _sucked_ \-- but at least they weren’t physically painful.”

“And now it’s us with the night terrors,” Leo said in a low voice, and Jim laughed at him.

“Bones,” Jim chided, “Jo’s a smart girl who knows how to throw a punch, and how to knock a variety of beings unconscious via pressure points.” Jim paused and pointed at Leo. “Team Us. We did that. We made her strong and capable, and yes, she’s only 16, but she’s mature, _and_ she’s smart. She’ll be fine.”

Leo let Jim talk, having learned so many years ago now that half of Jim’s patter was his way of convincing _himself_ that what he was saying was true. 

“Besides, even if boys - or girls--or whoever- are not afraid of me, they are of _you_.” Jim had a satisfied look on his face, as he rocked and took a long pull of his ice tea, chomping on a piece of ice before raising one finger to make another point in his continuing internal argument. “And they are fucking terrified of what her Uncle Spock will do to them.”

Leo smiled at the very idea of Uncle Spock with a phaser rifle, although … For a man who found violence highly illogical, Spock had most certainly raised more than one ruckus over the years. And it was true, he was particularly partial to Jo, who had spent her first year or so of life on the _Enterprise_ and loved her Uncle Spock unreservedly, much to his surprise and to Nyota’s amusement. He firmly believed that Nyota and Spock were parents now because of Joanna, because her love had convinced Spock to try to become a parent.

That road had not been easy, but it had come to pass, at long last. Their twins, likely the first and last of their kind, had just a celebrated their twelfth birthday. 

Leo shifted and yawned. Despite the tea, and the company, the long night was catching up to him. At 61, he’d thought the nights of caring for a baby were long past before Peter had appeared in their lives. 

He heard the bump and the stumble just before David came groggily out onto the porch. Jim winced at the sight of his doppelganger’s impressive bedhead, and his heavily sleep-creased face. David was tall for an almost eight year old, and thin, with a heart-shaped face that would broaden like Jim’s when he was older, but for now he was all elbows and shins, frequently bruised, and not his typical sunny self first thing in the morning, not today or any day for the past couple of weeks. Petey’s fussing wasn’t just disturbing his Daddies’ sleep, a fact which only amplified Davy’s issues with the whole situation.

“Daddy,” David said loudly, and flinched at the sound of his own voice. Before Jim could shush him for being loud, Davy staggered over to Jim’s lap and clambered up onto it, holding the woobie he’d given up nearly three years before. 

Jim cradled their boy, and went to kiss him before Davy said crossly, “An’ don’t shush me, Daddy, that baby wakes me up all the time.”

“He’s not that baby,” Jim said, patient as ever, “he’s your brother.”

“He’s my cousin,” Davy corrected grouchily, “and that’s bad enough. He’s not my real brother just because some talking rock says so.”

Leo knew he shouldn’t smile, as Davy’s intransigence on the subject of brotherhood was becoming a real problem, but … he wasn’t worried. David was, at his very core, a goodhearted child. He’d get over his nose being out of joint after a while, but like Peter’s teeth, it was going to be a bitch for the rest of them, and he suspected for David himself, while he accepted their new reality. 

“What about me, Davykins?” The smooth baritone came from the front yard, and Leo’s head swung round in surprise, as did Jim’s. 

“Zar!” Jim voice rang out at the same time as his own, “Son!”

Zar stood straight and tall in his dress greys. At 24, he stood more than a head tall than he or Jim and was far more broad and heavily muscled. His black hair, shorn at the sides, was plaited and fell to mid-back, Starfleet having accommodated to their son’s unique heritage and beliefs. His grey eyes were striking under the dark brows that etched upward. They, like his pointed ears, were the only sign of his father’s Vulcan heritage. Zar’s combat boots dangled by their laces from his belt, and Leo smiled at the sight. Ever the country boy, Zar had always taken his shoes off the first chance he got. “Am I only your brother because the Guardian said so?”

David was sitting gape-mouthed and white-faced at the very thought. “No, Zar!” he exclaimed, pushing off Jim’s lap and pelting down the front stairs to his brother. He was teary eyed by the time he launched himself into Zar’s outstretched arms and Zar picked him up and tossed him joyfully into the air before catching him and hugging him. Davy’s thin white legs barely reached Zar’s waist.

“That’s how I came here, too, Davy,” Zar said in a low voice. “My mother died, and the Guardian sent our fathers to Sarpeidon to rescue me. I’m more blood to Uncle Spock than I am to any of you, do you understand?” Zar caught Davy’s legs and cradled him to his chest, rocking him like the baby he’d been acting for the past weeks. “Should I have resented Jojo when she was born? Or you, when you came after? I was here _first_.”

David plucked at the bars at Zar’s necks. “No,” he whispered.

“You cried too, you know,” Zar said softly. “But I still love you.”

“I just don’t understand,” David mumbled, still not giving in, but willing to be convinced by his beloved brother.

“What don’t you understand, Davy?” Jim asked quietly. He’d come down to hug and kiss their eldest, and remained standing with his arms around both their boys, David sandwiched protectively between the two men. Leo shook his head at the sight. It was still a marvel to see Zar so grown up sometimes, when he recalled the hungry, ragged child, wild with grief and fear that Zar had been when the Guardian had first shown them him. 

“Why the Guardian does the things he does?”

Jim chuckled. “Oh, David, I don’t think we’ll ever, ever be able to understand.” Jim paused for a moment, and Leo knew that he searching for a way to explain the metaphysics of their whole unruly lives to David. Leo settled in, amazed that Petey was sleeping through the whole scene, and wishing he had enough hands to record it. 

“There are some things,” Jim began, and stopped and sighed. “I know that it’s hard to understand, but Zar doesn’t even come from this time, or even the same universe. He said that Uncle Spock is his blood, but _our_ Uncle Spock is not his father.”

Now David looked completely confused, and Leo didn’t blame him one little bit. The whole story made his head ache, and he had no idea how they were going to explain Peter’s existence in their universe to him someday, either. 

Leo didn't think Jim would ever be able to explain, not to David or anyone else, what it was like communicating with the Guardian of Forever. In the blink of an eye, he had given them a glimpse of so many dizzyingly different worlds -- where Zarabeth died before giving birth to Zar, others where she never was sent to the past, or never encountered the Spock that had incurred into their own universe. The ripples had spread out and down and inside out and backwards and forwards in time, moving in all directions simultaneously -- worlds where Jim had grown up with an intact family, but died on Tarsus, or died on a mission, or never really died at all -- ones where Leo had been on the shuttle that killed his mother, or never had a sister, or had multiple siblings, worlds his father had lived longer, or died younger -- 

But in so many worlds, so many, Peter had been orphaned, just like Zar, because Sam Kirk almost always died before he made it to middle age and often before he became a father. In the universe from whence their Peter had come, like most other worlds, his mother had been Aurelan, beautiful brown-eyed and auburn-haired, like her eldest son. Aurelan, the girl that Sam Kirk had died trying to protect on Tarsus in his Jim's timeline. Peter's existence had shaken Jim up nearly as much as Winona. But, teething, late nights and a traumatized toddler's rage had done nothing to stem the swell of love that Leonard felt for the little boy that was theirs now. 

Truth be told, the Guardian was a bit of a meddler, showing Jim and he glimpses of other Jims and Leos, and their Joannas and Davids and Peters, and even Zar, who had been more his child than Jim’s in other whens, just as there were whens where David … 

Leo realized he was rocking very vigorously when Petey made an unhappy noise in his arms. He hugged him closer to his chest. Petey may not have been born his son, but in this when, he was Leo’s and Jim’s, as much as Joanna and David, and Zar. Blood wasn’t everything. And Leo would do _anything_ to protect his children. 

On the lawn, Zar was laughing at Jim. “Dad, you are making it so much worse!”

Jim shook his head and then scrubbed the back of his neck and started again slowly, feeling his way toward an explanation. “OK. So … some things happened and –“ he paused and spoke in a more excited tone. “Do you know when you drop a rock in the water – what happens?“

“It makes ripples,” David said, looking at his father like he was simple.

“We can see those ripples, right?” Jim said, and David nodded. “But what happens in the water we don’t see, Davy?”

David looked puzzled as Jim continued, “What happens when the rock falls through the water, and lands somewhere? Maybe it’s the last rock that starts an underwater rock slide, you know? Maybe it’s a big rock, and it changes the bottom of the ocean. Or it’s a meteor and it changes the gas composition of the air _and_ it makes ripples, _and_ it changes the bottom of the ocean. “

Leo could see from David’s thoughtful expression, and his wrinkled brow that his father was starting to make sense to him, and God, he so favored Jim in looks. 

“Sometimes, sentient beings are like that rock, Davy. The more we move through space in our universe, the more ripples we make. Because our universe is like an ocean, except maybe instead of the ocean floor, there’s a wormhole, a door to another universe, and there are so, so, so many of them. And The Guardian knows them all, every where and every when. I don’t know that we can ever understand how much the Guardian knows, but he _knew_ that some of those ripples meant Zar should come be with us, and he’s … the best big brother ever, isn’t he?”

David nodded. 

“I can’t imagine our family without him in it,” Jim said to David, and Zar bent to kiss his father’s brow, as David sat, solemn-faced, but listening. “And I know that you don’t see it yet, but I promise you, Peter’s going to be a great little brother.”

On his lap, Peter made a humming noise, and Leo looked down startled, to see Peter’s brown eyes opened and focused on the scene on the front lawn.

At the moment, Davy still looked skeptical, and the Kirk family jaw that Peter shared with him was still set, but he didn’t look as mulish ... Maybe. 

“He will indeed,” Gram’s voice was scratchy with age and weak, but Leo heard her clearly. 

“Gram!” 

“G’am,” Peter said happily, his binky falling out of his mouth. 

“There’s my baby love,” Gram said, steering her hoverchair out on to the porch.

Leo looked down at his lap in true surprise. He knew that Peter had bonded with his Gram, but as a rule, the child didn't speak, although they knew he could. Leo well remembered the summer he himself had been mostly silent all those years ago, after his mother and his first Joanna had died, and neither he nor Jim had pressed Peter. They'd had enough experience with Zar to understand that trust had to be earned with a child who had been devastated by loss. 

"Peter," Gram crooned, holding out her hand to the boy as Joanna made sure that the door stayed open to accommodate her hoverchair. 

"G'am," Peter repeated, more loudly, reaching for her, and Leo became aware that the conversation on the lawn had stopped abruptly as everyone's attention focused on the little boy. 

"Give me my boy, Leo," Gram said. Her voice was weakened with age, but her tone still had the pepper in it that was essentially Gram. She was closing in on 119 years and somedays she looked fragile as a piece of glass, but she was still with them, radiant and loving and vital. 

"Joanna my sweet," Gram said, running the phrase altogether. "Get me that boy from your gaping Daddy. And c'mon up here and kiss me, all y'all. I know your Daddies taught you better than that." 

Zar ran across the lawn in leaping strides, bounding up the stairs with David in his arms, betraying the boy that still lived inside him despite his appearance. 

After all, Peter wasn't the only member of the Kirk-McCoy household who loved his Gram.

Zar leaned over to kiss Gram’s cheek, as Davy leaned in to do the same. 

"G'Morning, Gram," they chimed, both slightly off time. 

Joanna looked like she was going to bust a gut from holding in her laughter, "G’Morning, Gram!" she sing-songed in a kiss-ass voice, green eyes flashing.

Zar dumped David on Leo's briefly empty lap while he took off after a now shrieking Joanna as she flung open the screen and tore into the house, around the piano and back out onto the porch farther down.

"Jesus Christ!" Ted bellowed from inside. "No goddamned running in the house! Do you know how much it costs to tune that piano every damned time you two knuckleheads knock it around?"

"Shut up, Ted!" Gram hollered back. 

"Don't you tell me to shut up, Lizbeth!" 

"He hasn't been home for months!" She hollered back. "Grampa's an ornery cuss," she whispered to a slightly worried-looking baby Peter. "Don't you mind him none. Pretty soon, you'll be chasing them, too."

She leaned forward in the chair and crooked a finger toward David, who was back to looking a little sulky, not sure if he wanted to be a big kid and join in the screaming coming from around the back of the house or push Peter out of the way so he could be cossetted in Gram’s lap. "Now, Davy," she said in a conspiratorial whisper. "I'm pretty sure you can cut them off if you hide over near the big white hydrangea. And I do believe,” she said enticingly, “that's where I left the hose." 

David was off Leo's lap and down the stairs like he had rockets on his ass.

Gram smiled and leaned back with Peter happily resting against her chest. She adjusted the back of the custom-built chair that Scotty had made for her, and directed a look at Leo. “What?” she asked innocently.

He just shook his head, smiled, and poured her a glass of tea. She knew she was incorrigible. He was not going to encourage her in her mischief.

Shrieks went up from the backyard and Jim cheered and whistled from the lawn, clapping his hands. “Good job, Davy!” he encouraged. “Awesome tactics!” 

He bounded up the porch stairs and draped himself on the arm of Leo’s chair. “We should probably think about breakfast,” he murmured, leaning across Leo to get his tea. “Hi, big boy!” He said to Peter, who grinned at him, but otherwise remained silent, resting against Gram. 

On the lawn, a transporter beam shimmered, and Winona appeared, still wearing her uniform. A small pile of luggage appeared next to her. 

“Nana!” The cry went up from the back of the house, and then their damp children were streaming towards Jim’s mother. 

Winona did a double take when she saw how wet they all were and went from opening her arms for hugs, to taking off and running in the opposite direction, shrieking with laughter, which everyone on the porch joined in on, even Peter.

“Looking good, Nona,” Gram hollered from the porch. “She can still move!” She added to Jim and Leo.

“When are the rest of them getting here?” Jim asked, as Gram put on a falsely innocent expression.

“Why, whatever are you talking about, Jim dear?” she intoned sweetly.

“Just a small family party,” Leo said in a high voice. “How many times do you think we’re going to fall for that line, Gram?”

“It’s not my fault that our definition of family is _expansive_.” Gram said. “Besides, who knows if I’ll be here for the next milestone. Madisons…” she began.

“Don’t live as long as McCoys,” Leo and Jim finished for her, but Leo’s intonation was a bit more sarcastic. 

“You’ve been working that one for at least thirty years now, Gram,” Leo said.

Ted snorted from behind the screen and came out. “You’re a fool if you think it’s only that little while, boy,” he said. “Give it up now: Lizbeth will have her way.”

Gram smiled sweetly from her chair. “Did you get the cots in the loft of the barn for all the children?”

“Yes, Lizbeth,” Ted sighed. “And the cook you hired is whipping up enough food to feed the small army you’re expecting, which is beginning to arrive.” He pointed with his chin to the long drive where a couple of hovercars could be seen. 

If Leo had to guess, he figured that everyone from the _Enterprise_ ’s former command crew who was in the quadrant would soon be spilling out of those vehicles. He supposed he should be worried about his state of undress, but after ten years together on the _Enterprise_ it wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before. 

Gram just smiled. “Happy Anniversary, boys.” 

Jim turned from watching his mother, who had lost her battle against damp hugs, and picked Leo’s left hand up from where it was resting on his thigh. He kissed the rings on Leo’s finger and turned to regard his husband. “Twenty years,” he said. “Platinum.”

“Thirty,” Leo answered, “if we count those years before we said ‘I do’.” He stretched up, and Jim tipped forward so they could meet in the middle for a kiss.

“I do,” Jim whispered against his lips as he drew apart.

“Twenty years,” Ted scoffed. 

Leo was not surprised to see him holding a misty-eyed Gram’s hand. “You infants got a long ways to go to catch up.”

Gram rolled her eyes and Jim laughed, still holding on to Leo’s hand. 

“You know I love a challenge, Ted,” Jim said. “You’re on.” 

Damn straight, Leo thought, and smiled, holding his husband’s hand, and watching their children greet their beloved aunts and uncles, and all their kids. Damn straight.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I have shamelessly stolen Zar from A.C. Crispin's Yesterday's Son, and imported him into the AOS-verse. Why not? I've also given Peter Kirk a better childhood in the bargain, not to mention Joanna and David. Fanfic: Because I Could, That's Why. Also, because if the Guardian of Forever exists, anything can happen.


End file.
